NAME
Email::Stuff - A more casual approach to creating and sending Email::
emails
SYNOPSIS
# Prepare the message
my $body = <from ('cpan@ali.as' )
->to ('santa@northpole.org' )
->bcc ('bunbun@sluggy.com' )
->text_body($body )
->attach (io('dead_bunbun_faked.gif')->all,
filename => 'dead_bunbun_proof.gif')
->send;
DESCRIPTION
The basics should all work, but this module is still subject to name
and/or API changes
Email::Stuff, as its name suggests, is a fairly casual module used to
email "stuff" to people using the most common methods. It is a
high-level module designed for ease of use when doing a very specific
common task, but implemented on top of the tight and correct Email::
modules.
Email::Stuff is typically used to build emails and send them in a single
statement, as seen in the synopsis. And it is certain only for use when
creating and sending emails. As such, it contains no email parsing
capability, and little to no modification support.
To re-iterate, this is very much a module for those "slap it together
and fire it off" situations, but that still has enough grunt behind the
scenes to do things properly.
Default Mailer
Although it cannot be relied upon to work, the default behaviour is to
use sendmail to send mail, if you don't provide the mail send channel
with either the "using" method, or as an argument to "send".
The use of sendmail as the default mailer is consistent with the
behaviour of the Email::Send module itself.
Why use this?
Why not just use Email::Simple or Email::MIME? After all, this just adds
another layer of stuff around those. Wouldn't using them directly be
better?
Certainly, if you know EXACTLY what you are doing. The docs are clear
enough, but you really do need to have an understanding of the structure
of MIME emails. This structure is going to be different depending on
whether you have text body, HTML, both, with or without an attachment
etc.
Then there's brevity... compare the following roughly equivalent code.
First, the Email::Stuff way.
Email::Stuff->to('Simon Cozens')
->from('Santa@northpole.org')
->text_body("You've been a good boy this year. No coal for you.")
->attach_file('choochoo.gif')
->send;
And now doing it directly with a knowledge of what your attachment is,
and what the correct MIME structure is.
use Email::MIME;
use Email::MIME::Creator;
use Email::Send;
use IO::All;
send SMTP => Email::MIME->create(
header => [
To => 'simon@somewhere.jp',
From => 'santa@northpole.org',
],
parts => [
Email::MIME->create(
body => "You've been a good boy this year. No coal for you."
),
Email::MIME->create(
body => io('choochoo.gif'),
attributes => {
filename => 'choochoo.gif',
content_type => 'image/gif',
},
),
],
);
Again, if you know MIME well, and have the patience to manually code up
the Email::MIME structure, go do that.
Email::Stuff, as the name suggests, solves one case and one case only.
Generate some stuff, and email it to somewhere. As conveniently as
possible. DWIM, but do it as thinly as possible and use the solid
Email:: modules underneath.
COOKBOOK
Here is another example (maybe plural later) of how you can use
Email::Stuff's brevity to your advantage.
Custom Alerts
package SMS::Alert;
sub new {
shift()->SUPER::new(@_)
->from('monitor@my.website')
# Of course, we could have pulled these from
# $MyConfig->{support_tech} or something similar.
->to('0416181595@sms.gateway')
->using(SMTP => '123.123.123.123');
}
package My::Code;
unless ( $Server->restart ) {
# Notify the admin on call that a server went down and failed
# to restart.
SMS::Alert->subject("Server $Server failed to restart cleanly")
->send;
}
METHODS
As you can see from the synopsis, all methods that modify the
Email::Stuff object returns the object, and thus most normal calls are
chainable.
However, please note that "send", and the group of methods that do not
change the Email::Stuff object do not return the object, and thus are
not chainable.
new
Creates a new, empty, Email::Stuff object.
headers
Returns, as a list, all of the headers currently set for the Email
parts
Returns, as a list, the Email::MIME parts for the Email
header $header => $value
Adds a single named header to the email. Note I said add not set, so you
can just keep shoving the headers on. But of course, if you want to use
to overwrite a header, you're stuffed. Because this module is not for
changing emails, just throwing stuff together and sending it.
to $address
Adds a To: header to the email
from $address
Adds (yes ADDS, you only do it once) a From: header to the email
cc $address
Adds a Cc: header to the email
bcc $address
Adds a Bcc: header to the email
subject $text
Adds a subject to the email
text_body $body [, $header => $value, ... ]
Sets the text body of the email. Unless specified, all the appropriate
headers are set for you. You may overload any as needed. See
Email::MIME::Creator for the actual headers to use.
html_body $body [, $header => $value, ... ]
Set the HTML body of the email. Unless specified, all the appropriate
headers are set for you. You may overload any as needed. See
Email::MIME::Creator for the actual headers to use.
attach $contents [, $header => $value, ... ]
Adds an attachment to the email. The first argument is the file contents
followed by (as for text_body and html_body) the list of headers to use.
Email::Stuff should TRY to guess the headers right, but you may wish to
provide them anyway to be sure. Encoding is Base64 by default.
attach_file $file
Provides a one-argument method to attach a file that already exists on
the filesystem to the email. "attach_file" will auto-detect the MIME
type, and use the file's current name when attaching.
using $drivername, @options
The "using" method specifies the Email::Send driver that you want to use
to send the email, and any options that need to be passed to the driver
at the time that we send the mail.
Alternatively, you can pass a complete mailer object (which must be an
Email::Send object) and it will be used as is.
email
Creates and returns the full Email::MIME object for the email.
as_string
Returns the string form of the email. Identical to (and uses behind the
scenes) Email::MIME->as_string.
send
Sends the email via Email::Send.
mailer
If you need to interact with it directly, the "mailer" method returns
the Email::Send mailer object that will be used to send the email.
Returns an Email::Send object, or dies if the driver is not available.
TO DO
- Fix a number of bugs still likely to exist
- Write some proper unit tests. Write ANY unit tests
- Add any additional small bit of automation that arn't too expensive
SUPPORT
All bugs should be filed via the CPAN bug tracker at
For other issues, or commercial enhancement or support, contact the
author.
AUTHORS
Adam Kennedy
SEE ALSO
Email::MIME, Email::Send,
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2004 - 2007 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
with this module.